L’impiego del laser verde nella lavorazione del legno (The applications of green lasers in wood machining)

Nowadays, CO2 lasers are widely adopted in wood machining in applications such as cutting, marking and carving, thanks to the good wood absorption at their wavelength. However, the main interaction mode between these sources and the wood is thermal interaction. Consequently, a heat affected zone, as burned or darkened material, is often visible on the wood. Moreover, this kind of lasers, due to the high wavelength, shows a large spot at the focusing point; this limits the application of this sources when a draw with fine detail is required. Thanks to good material absorption, the little spot at the focusing point and the limited material heating, the green laser sources can offer a valid alternative to the traditional CO2 lasers in wood machining. In the present work, the advantages of green laser in marking and milling operations on wood are discussed together with the typical problems encountered during the laser processing of these materials. At the end, a simple model to estimate the depth obtained in milling operation is presented.